"You're Ugly, Too" ~by Lorrie Moore

(#4)
"She used to insist it was irony, something gently layered and sophisticated, something alien to the Midwest, but her students kept calling it sarcasm, something they felt qualified to recognize, and now she had to agree. It wasn't irony" (page 353). Zoë makes this distinction early in the story between irony and sarcasm. "For about ten years of my life I had to map out every sentence in my mind, way ahead, before i said it. That was the only way I could get a coherent sentence out...I told a lot of jokes. Jokes you know the lines to already - you can just say them. I love jokes. Jokes and songs" (page 365). This is an example of irony. It is ironic that the only way Zoë could talk was by telling jokes, but now she spends her life writing books about humor. She used to not be able to form coherent sentences; however, now she is writing books. "What is your perfume? a student once asked her. Room freshener, she said" (page 353). This is an example of sarcasm. Sarcasm is something said with a more joking tone. Irony is similar to sarcasm; however, irony is more complex and refined. Irony is something that can be thought about and seems paradoxical but actually makes sense.